2600 Madden Football?

[joeybastard]

While drinking black coffee this popped into my head. Tell me if I remember this correctly or if I'm totally off my rocker.

 

Wasn't there a Madden Football for the 2600 announced for the VCS back in it's heyday? I think it was available only thru mailorder and you had to send in like boxtops from something to get it. I seem to remember screenshots that looked like Realsports football. I assume since I've never seen anybody mention it that it never came out.

[+Cafeman]

I never heard of such a thing, but John Madden used to hype a brand of Atari 2600 (and other systems) games -- was it for 20th Century Fox? He was always with a microphone, announcing, as gamers would play in the background as part of a competition.

 

Anyway, the guy who went on to program the first Madden games, wasn't he a classic 80's programmer? I forget the specifics and I'm sure one of you is dying to reveal what you know.

[joeybastard]

Maybe that's what I'm thinking of, that he was spokesman for somebody, but I could swear there was a promise of a Madden Football cart.

[Room 34]

Seems weird that Madden would do 20th Century Fox games, since they didn't have any sports titles.

 

My guess -- and this is a complete guess, although I do have vague recollections of having seen these commercials -- is that it would've been for M Network.

 

Again, these are just my opinions. I seem to be harangued a lot lately for expressing them...

[joeybastard]

Seems weird that Madden would do 20th Century Fox games, since they didn't have any sports titles.

 

My guess -- and this is a complete guess, although I do have vague recollections of having seen these commercials -- is that it would've been for M Network.

 

Again, these are just my opinions. I seem to be harangued a lot lately for expressing them...

 

Not by me I'm glad somebody else at least vaguely remembers this. I would agree that 20th Century Fox would be an odd match considering it's lack of sports titles.

[NE146]

Sure he did.. I've posted this scan here before I believe

[joeybastard]

I also found this over at Atari HQ. I guess I got the console wrong. Thanks everybody for humoring my failing memory!

[Room 34]

Ah, OF COURSE!

 

CBS. They friggin' OWNED Madden back then. I should've known!

[+Cafeman]

CBS! I knew it was whoever did Wizard of Wor!

 

@5200 Madden: that's news to me,I never heard of that one. Are there any pictures of the game? Is it a prototype somewhere? What company?

[joeybastard]

According to Atari HQ it's from a CBS press kit.

 

I'm positive there was some kind of boxtop tie in with this. If I still had my comicbook collection, I bet I could find the ad.

[joeybastard]

here's a press release mentioning the cart for the INTV

 

http://intvfunhouse.com/oddsnends/pressrel...se/cbs-pr-1.jpg

 

Scroll to the bottom

[Big Player]

Super Football could be looked as an early version of Madden.

 

Except it came out only a year before the first Madden. Or was it the same year? 1989?

[Godzilla]

wow, that's wild. I had no idea there was a madden in the works even back in the 2600/5200 era! Id love to see any mockups if there are any anywhere....

[Agent X]

That's really interesting!

 

I also noticed in the little portion describing the 5200 version that it was supposed to have 11-man teams. I remember that when EA was doing the original John Madden Football (for Apple II and Commodore 64) in the late 1980's, that one of Madden's specific requests was that they have 11-man teams (something a lot of football games back then didn't have). He said that if EA couldn't do that, then they shouldn't even bother releasing the game with his name, because it wouldn't be realistic. So, EA persevered, until the game was up to Madden's standards.

[slapdash]

There WAS a 2600 version planned too -- it was called "Maddenness" at some point in its life.

[Godzilla]

hahaahhahaaaa.... yea! that's the ticket!

[ZylonBane]

I wanna know whatever happened to the Electronic Football port.

 

 

It's hard to make out, but I think the blobby blue squares at the bottom are supposed to be the "ST", "SC", and "K" buttons on the handheld Football unit.

 

[Godzilla]

yea id love to see that, i really enjoyed that handheld. and I'm sure thats something the 2600 could have easily handled....

 

theres something that would be interesting, find some easy way to program vfd games on the 2600 (maybe some kind of basic engine...) and just code in the diff gfx elements and rules? nah thats not really possibly. but it would be neat :-)

[joeybastard]

I loved that Mattel Football too. If there was a VCS port, I'd definetely get that.

[sku_u]

AFAIK, Madden 5200 was in the works, but no development of the title actually took place. No matter. I'm happy with Madden 2004 for PS2

 

Maybe Tempest has Madden 5200.

[tailGator]

Man that's awesome. I didn't realize that there were plans for Madden before EA got involved. I know the first released EA Madden was back in '89 for the Apple. The first console version of course, was on the Genesis in Christmas of '90 I believe.

[Shannon]

That's really interesting!

 

I also noticed in the little portion describing the 5200 version that it was supposed to have 11-man teams. I remember that when EA was doing the original John Madden Football (for Apple II and Commodore 64) in the late 1980's, that one of Madden's specific requests was that they have 11-man teams (something a lot of football games back then didn't have). He said that if EA couldn't do that, then they shouldn't even bother releasing the game with his name, because it wouldn't be realistic. So, EA persevered, until the game was up to Madden's standards.

 

It's nice to know that he was doing something besides cashing a paycheck which is what he seems to do now.

[Loveofthegame]

Most likely an unknown fact.

Atari before making this football game for the 2600 approached Bill Mazer. Asking him to be the image behind the game.

Bill asked my father what he thought of Atari's proposition. He told Bill to do the game.

Bill with a full schedule at the time decided against doing it. Had he accepted Atari's offer, potentially Madden Football could have been Mazer Football.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Mazer

 

[Philflound]

1988 for the C64.

 

http://www.sikids.com/photos/26867/from-mattel-to-madden/9

[+Wonder007]

I have the complete code for the atari 5200 Madden football game (it was a throw in to a big 2600 proto deal I completed years ago) . I just need to transfer the data so that it can be played. I am not really a 5200 guy, do you think it is worth pursuing?